Toplist Results: The 20 Greatest Mortal Kombat Kharacters of All-Time

8. Kung Lao

If Liu Kang was a little too hatless for you, Mortal Kombat spiced things up with their generic kung fu guy figure with Kung Lao and his razor-edged hat. Like a taller, less Goldeneye-meme-y version of Oddjob, Kung Lao was all about that hat. And it led to many of the best fatalities in the series, including one where he'd cleave someone in half down the middle with a single toss. While that seems pretty tame by today's standards, in the early 90s it was one of the most horrifying things most 8 year olds would ever see. Never has a generation been so happy to be so traumatized.

7. Toasty Guy - Dan Forden

6. Liu Kang

The de facto hero of the whole series is Liu Kang - winner of every tournament in the first four games, pretty solid Bruce Lee knock-off, and the best invisible air cyclist in the world of gaming. While he's somewhat bland by design, the makers of Mortal Kombat have spiced him up in various ways throughout the games, making him more violent, giving him interesting finishing moves, and occasionally turning him into a zombie. But most of all, they gave him one of the coolest Animalities/Fatalities, turning him into an actual dragon. It's like a George R.R. Martin wet dream come true.

5. Noob Saibot

Here's where things get goofy: Noob Saibot (named after the backwards-ized names of creators Ed BOON and John TOBIAS), while eventually being his own fighter with his own types of moves, is technically an undead wraith version of the original Sub-Zero, who technically only appeared in the first Mortal Kombat (more on that later). Noob was definitely one of the cooler fighters, though - although he shared the same identical design as all the other dude-ninjas, his dark-gray/black attire gave him a creepy shadow-type vibe. And he had a great set of disorienting moves - teleporting around, disabling your moves, and more. It's hard not to admire him, even if he was being sorta a dick about the whole death-fight thing.